Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ben Stein: One of Them (Tribute to Arthur Miller)
The American Spectator ^ | 2/16/2005 12:04:31 AM | Ben Stein

Posted on 02/19/2005 7:48:42 PM PST by Former Military Chick

I see that Arthur Miller has entered immortality. His Death of a Salesman is a masterpiece of the first magnitude. An essay he wrote in 1974 about Richard Nixon entitled "One of Us" argued that Nixon had ruined himself by refusing to admit that he had human faults and then, when those faults were revealed, Nixon was ruined by the comparison against the template he had created. Nixon, Miller argued, was really just "one of us" with all our flaws.

It was a brilliant piece and I feel the same way about Arthur Miller. He wrote a great play about selling, and I think of it every day I am traveling and selling myself on a smile and a shoeshine.

But Arthur Miller,the demigod of artistic integrity, prided himself on defending the system of Stalin and the Gulags and the worst mass murders of all time against the system of Jefferson and Washington and Eisenhower. He considered himself above mass culture and celebrity and yet married Marilyn Monroe. He berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.

Arthur Miller, too, was one of us.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: arthurmiller; benstein; tas; tribute
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

1 posted on 02/19/2005 7:48:42 PM PST by Former Military Chick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

Wow. In just over a paragraph, Ben's NAILED it. 'Nuff said.


2 posted on 02/19/2005 7:51:40 PM PST by Al Simmons (4-time 'W' voter, 1994-2004.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

Pi$$ on anyone who defends Stalin and his friends. Hope you and Stalin are having a nice discussion where you are Miller.


3 posted on 02/19/2005 7:52:29 PM PST by NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

OUCH!!!


4 posted on 02/19/2005 7:56:24 PM PST by spinestein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick
he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.

That about tells you what sort of non-person Arthur Miller was

5 posted on 02/19/2005 7:57:40 PM PST by GeronL (The Old Media is at war with the New Media...... We are all Matt Drudges now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick
He berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.

How very sad. :(

6 posted on 02/19/2005 7:58:16 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Apparently, this is the only job for which I am suited. I am beset by the ironies of my life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick
he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited

Compassionate Liberalism.

7 posted on 02/19/2005 8:02:44 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (The people previously responsible for this tagline have been sacked.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

Damn!


8 posted on 02/19/2005 8:03:01 PM PST by silent_jonny (I'm fringier than you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

Great article. I find it sad that Miller put his child in an institution and never visited. Wonder about the mother?


9 posted on 02/19/2005 8:08:54 PM PST by Goodgirlinred ( GoodGirlInRed Four More Years!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Pretty much nails it in the same terse form that made Death of A Salesman great. I read the play for about the 4th time just a few weeks ago - and it was very fine - it must have hit the theatrical world like an atom bomb back in 1947 or 48. I also recall reading an interesting story in the NYT Magazine about 10 years ago on some of Miller's experiences that were the germ for Death of A Salesman. Apparently Miller's father ran a shop in NYC and Arthur worked there as a teen. A particular sales rep called on his father's store and one day Arthur helped the guy to the train with his sample cases. A short time later it became known that this particular sales rep committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Whence came Willy Loman.

I suppose it's like Sean Penn and numerous others - capable of great artistry - but really flawed as human beings. You have to admire them with a real reservation.


10 posted on 02/19/2005 8:10:56 PM PST by Wally_Kalbacken
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick
An honest obit: almost a lost art.

Political correctness and social grace means that one mustn't speak ill of the recently departed, and certainly mustn't publish anything negative, especially, of course, when the deceased is a liberal.

Stein is dead on the money here. It may be crass to say this of an obituary, but this one was a breath of fresh air.

11 posted on 02/19/2005 8:21:10 PM PST by southernnorthcarolina (<b><font color=e58d0e>Did you know that HTML codes don't work on tag lines?</font></b>)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wally_Kalbacken
Great creativity does not equal great character either in people or in civilizations.
12 posted on 02/19/2005 8:27:06 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Apparently, this is the only job for which I am suited. I am beset by the ironies of my life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

I had a conversation about this point with my wife earlier in the week. It really shows a contrast between the type of person that Miller was compared to the type of person Geroge Will is.


13 posted on 02/19/2005 8:36:36 PM PST by Sthitch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick
He berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.

I had never heard that. How incredibly sad and hypocritical.

14 posted on 02/19/2005 10:11:57 PM PST by conservative cat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservative cat

Isn't that what most liberals do best? Being hypocrites


15 posted on 02/19/2005 11:41:28 PM PST by MKM1960
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Wally_Kalbacken
Frankly, I thought Death of a Salesman was great--when I was 15. As I have aged and seen the play many more times than I would have liked (it seems to be a favorite of alot of rep companies), I have become less and less enamored with it.

As we age we learn to overcome obstacles, how to succeed, and how to roll with the punches at times that failure beats at our door. Miller's salesman just doesn't get it about taking responsibility for one's own life, being a man without being a whiny victim, setting a high moral example for his family, savoring the benefits that love and fidelity produce, and living according to a higher moral code that has little to do with material success.

This play, like alot of his other work, is a superb reflection of the malaise of the country at the time it was written. It's of Miller's time and not necessarily time-less. It's a downer and Miller's attitude in alot of interviews seemed pessimistic. The Crucible was a manipulation of the details of the Salem Witch Trials as well as the McCarthy hearings (according to Ann Coulter's reporting). After the Fall seemed like a betrayal of his marital intimacy with Monroe.

Miller didn't seem like a positive person. If that negativism is "like the rest of us", I treasure not being one of the crowd.

16 posted on 02/19/2005 11:53:15 PM PST by MHT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear; Former Military Chick

<< << [Miller] berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.

How very sad. :( >>

Sad?

Get out of here.

Miller was evil.

[His colossal hypocrisy but a symptom of his associated mental disorder -- and underlying Liberal Psychosis]


17 posted on 02/20/2005 12:31:55 AM PST by Brian Allen (I fly and can therefore be envious of no man -- Per Ardua ad Astra!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Tolik

you keep a "nailed it" pinglist, do you not?

I think this qualifies for a moral clarity ping.


18 posted on 02/20/2005 8:27:10 AM PST by King Prout (Remember John Adam!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Military Chick

Well put Ben!


19 posted on 02/20/2005 8:30:51 AM PST by Poser (Joining Belly Girl in the Pajamahadeen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brian Allen
Yes sad.

Poor kid

20 posted on 02/20/2005 8:30:57 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Apparently, this is the only job for which I am suited. I am beset by the ironies of my life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson